Wet microburst

This is the kind of thing that brings down planes... This one didn't.

What it did was leave me mesmerized and in awe of the phenomenon... I must confess that I was crossing my fingers in hopes that it would somehow develop into a water spout... As they say, give them an inch and they'll take a yard!
Anyway, in the end I was just thankful that Mother Nature put on this show when I was (for once!) at the right place, at the right time...

Hasta siempre!

The last I saw of Havana was an ample view from the fortress they call "La Cabaña" (The Hut). The sky was heavy with stormy clouds, the light promised an electric storm about to strike and the air was wonderfully charged...
I loved Havana and I plan on going back with more time to explore it properly, the way such a beautiful and interesting city deserves to be discovered.

Hasta siempre!

Impromptu

It was way too hot for me that day... I couldn't convince myself to get up off my beach chair but this photo was just begging to happen...

And here you have it - a hymn to laziness!

Peeking out the window...

... on my way to Cuba, I caught a glimpse of the Bahamas.

This is one of the many photos I took out the window since I was hopelessly drawn to that "red engine casing/clouds in the background" combination during most of the tiresome 8-hour flight...

The thin stripes of land down below stirred up my imagination and look forward even more intensely to the warm waters of Varadero, which I had been missing dearly since 2001.

A few hours later we finally we landed in Cuba - the place to be for great sea- and skyscapes!

Crepuscular rays

Those who love and prefer a beautiful sunrise over a beautiful sunset will get no argument from me. The truth is I don't think I'll ever have to choose between the two, as there's one of each every day...
However, if I really had to choose, I'm pretty sure I'd go for the sunset - if nothing else, because it happens just before night falls and I've made my mind up long ago that I prefer night over day.



Another thing I love in sunsets is the "fight" between light and shadows... and the fact that the shadows always come out on top - literally. Crepuscular rays like the ones in this photo mesmerise me and make that "fight" even more apparent. I'm lucky enough to catch some amazing skyscapes from my windows... and here's just one more piece of evidence of that...

Refreshing fly-by

This seagull was clearly having fun around the fountain - it kept circling the jets of water as they went up and down...

Looking at it against the sun, my eyes were locked in the flight pattern, admiring how it managed to fly through the mist and not get caught by those powerful "geysers". I truly envied that bird's eye view (in the most literal sense ever!) - it was a hot day, way too hot for me and it looked exquisitely refreshing... I bet no seagull ever envied our way of life :)

Waves on the ground

Very colourful, isn't it?

Well, looking at this photo, one things catches my eye more than anything else: the shadows the wall casts on the sidewalk. Call me weird, but I think they fit the scene very well, since this is a viewpoint above a beach... with waves... :)
If you lean a little over the wall, you can see the "Whale Beach" (Praia da Baleia). It got its name in 1872, when a huge whale got stranded there and it's only one of the many beautiful beaches you can find in Ericeira, which shores are very well know among surfers.

Deep in the valley

I sometimes wonder if I could live far away from the ocean and deep in a valley...
I'd still have the sky and maybe a river to quench my thirst of living by the water, but I can't help thinking I'd wither away and lose myself on those slopes...

To focus or not to focus

It was a cold day in the mountains. There was a pine tree in my field of vision when I was aiming my lens at the peak - I mean aiming for shooting, not for throwing ;P

I tend to take a lot of shots like these (as you can see here) and then I always end up not knowing which one I prefer - I guess they tell me different stories and I'm not big on preferring one emotion to another... For instance, I can't choose between fear and pure bliss. One is good for some moments, the other is good for... others.
So, this time I made a collage to get a real feel for the actual difference and maybe that would help me choose... but no. And then I finally made the choice to embrace both images - there's a choice I can live with :)

What do you mean "Canon"?!

At first he was quite excited about my lens cap... tried to take it from my hands, played around with it between his paws for a while and then, because it simply refused to fight back, he got bored and just "stared it to death" :)

Exploding sky

Dawn of a new year

May 2010 be filled with health and joy...
and all that good stuff we keep hoping for!!! ;)